He’s legally blind because of albinism, so he used an easier-to-see, optic-yellow ball.

No one complained. Not the coaches. Not the players. Not the parents.

But then he made a Grosse Pointe/Harper Woods team that made it to a district tournament game in 2015. Ryan was lined up to pitch in the tournament when Little League found out about his yellow ball, and banned it from being used because it wasn’t approved and licensed by the league.

“I couldn’t understand. It confused me. I used it my whole life ” said Ryan, who recalled being frustrated, upset, dumbfounded. “It’s just baseball. It’s not professional baseball. It’s just teenagers playing.”